Annie Jordan — Mary B. Post

“I ask you to drink to the woman who made all this possible for us -- to the woman who started out life on the waterfront, made the First Hill accept her… To Annie Jordan, my friends, a woman of courage, honesty, and beauty, such as we will not see again. To Annie, as fine a lady as Seattle has ever bred.”

Annie Jordan was as wild and untamed as the great Northwest at the turn of the century, and her rise to wealth and position paralleled the growth of Seattle.

When Annie was fifteen she met Hugh Deming, elegant son of an important family. They fell in love, but Hugh married Emily Carlton, who came from his part of town. And Annie married Ed Bauer, reliable and stable, knowing that she would always love Hugh.

Annie was a fighter. If she couldn't have Hugh, she could be his neighbor and social equal. So she fought her way up -- up in the world of business, up First Hill -- until she made Seattle's first families stand aside for her. Then tragedy struck, and in her grief Annie returned to the waterfront.

When Deming's business began to slide he went to Annie for help. She gave him all of her savings and the same sort of reckless love she had given him years before. Hugh never forgot what he owed to this gallant woman.